Our team
Co-Founder, CEO, President
Mary Weitzel, MBA
Mary Weitzel, MBA – Multi-talented leader with unique blend of scientific, engineering, business and customer-centric commercialization skills. Secured worldwide license for PPCM; secured NIH funding as PI; led development of PPCM from benchtop to authorized IND. Respected NIAID and NICHD peer reviewer. Former President and COO of Instead Inc. (now Evofem). Former President CBI (a ThermoElectron business) - manufacturer of OTC drug and personal care products. MBA – Harvard Business School; BS Engineering - U. of Utah
Chief Medical Officer
Barbara North, MD, PhD
Barbara North, MD, PhD – Practicing physician Barbara ensures science works for real people. Barbara was formerly Medical Director for VLI Corp. and Ultrafem Inc. Led all clinical trials that resulted in the successful launch of the Today® Contraceptive Sponge and the Instead Softcup®. MD- University of Miami, PhD – University of California Irvine.
Acting Chief Business Development Officer
Scott Cullison, MBA
Mr. Cullison has nearly 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He has amassed a broad range of expertise across business development, alliance management, commercial planning, product management, R&D program team leadership, and strategic planning. Over the course of his career, he has secured multiple transformative deals with major pharmaceutical companies that validated scientific platforms, provided non-dilutive capital, increased capabilities, and fueled meaningful growth and value creation through additional private financings and/or IPOs and follow-ons. He also brings with him commercial experience across large primary care, specialty care, and orphan indications across almost every industry therapeutic area with small molecules, antibodies and cell/gene therapies. For the past five years, Mr. Cullison has been the Owner & Consultant for Stride BDCOM Consulting, where he provides executive level business development and/or commercial planning strategy and execution services in the biopharma industry. MBA – Wake Forest University; BS – Molecular & Cellular Biology, University of Arizona.
Co-Founder, Regulatory Advisor, Pre-clinical development expert
Michael Oldham, PhD
Michael Oldham, PhD - Mike is one our country’s leading experts in toxicology, physiology and regulatory matters. Currently Director, Product Stewardship at Juul. Formerly, Principal Scientist at Altria where he was instrumental in helping industry develop safer smoking products and on the regulatory team working with FDA. University of California Irvine. Former VP and Director at VLI Corp, Spectrum IntraOcular, Ultrafem Inc and COO of Lectin Biopharma
VP of Finance
Rhonda Baird, MS
Finance leader who is deadline driven, strong, committed able to streamline processes resulting in improved bottom-line profitability. A unique perspective with experience in systems, integration, implementation, and process improvement; implementation team for SAP (FICO team lead) and Sage X3. Proficient in budgeting, analysis, cash flow monitoring and recommending corrective measures. BS in Accounting with a MS in Accounting Information Management.
Advisors
Zbigniew Wojcinski , DVM, DVSc, DACvP, DABT, FIATP
Dr. Wojcinski, the Founder of Toxicology and Pathology, LLC is an independent consultant with over 30 years’ experience in drug development including senior positions at Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis, Pfizer, and Fulcrum Pharma Developments. He has extensive experience with nonclinical development strategies, monitoring, and interpreting data from toxicity studies, and preparing comprehensive assessments of toxicity in support of drug development, including interactions with regulatory agencies. He also conducts diagnostic pathology for nonclinical toxicity studies, including overseeing the conduct of necropsies, histopathologic evaluations, and histopathology peer review. DVM, DVSc - Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Diplomate, American College of veterinary pathologists, Diplomate, American Board of toxicology, Fellow, international Academy of toxicological pathology.
Rachel Mackay, MBA-Senior Transformation Manager, Fluence
Rachel is an experienced strategy leader and business operator with a background in management consulting and scaling startups. She also brings experience across impact investing, venture capital, and private equity to the Yaso therapeutics team. Rachel is passionate about leveraging entrepreneurship and innovation to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. MBA – Kellogg School of Management, BA – Economics, University of Virginia
Mark Goodsell
Mark has 30 years’ experience as director of quality assurance and regulatory compliance. Most recently he was VP of Quality and Compliance for Imago Biosciences, Inc. which was acquired by Merck in 2023. He has supported small to midsize drug and device companies with development and training of quality assurance procedures in compliance. He is an expert in GLP, GMP, and GCP audits and successfully contributed to the recent acquisition of his last employer by a major pharmaceutical company. BS-University of New Hampshire.